Evaluation of alveolar basement membrane function in the diabetes mellitus patients

The thickening of alveolar basement membrane is found in autopsies, along with microvascular pathologies, in type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). To detect the function and permeability of alveolar basement membrane carbon monoxide diffusion capacity (DLCO) can be used. The aim of this study was to determine alveolar basement membrane damage using this method. In this descriptive and analytical study, fifty five women and 15 men, nonsmoking, type 2 DM cases, without any lung and / or heart disease who had neither anemia nor renal failure and no respiratory symptoms, made up the patients group. They were compared with 55 female and 15 male healthy cases who had the same characteristics as the diabetes cases. For all of the cases who had normal spirometry, DLCO were measured by single- breath method. Data were analyzed using t-student test. The amounts of measured DLCO in the patients with diabetes and in the control group were 9.65±2.4 and 9.1±1.79 milimlo/min/kilopascal, respectively (P>0.05). Also, there was no significant relationship between the volume corrected transfer factor in the patients and the control group. DLCO was not reduced in patients with diabetes without complication who had no clinical respiratory symptoms. We can use DLCO as indicator of microangiopathy in diabetic patients.